Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

There are so many options and I have major custom ROM overload! I found great links to a few custom ROMs that have been posted and I needed some "experience" help in deciding which one will be best for me.

Below is a list of "must have" items or items I use on a daily basis.

Fully functional e-mail, contact, and calendar through Microsoft Exchange Server - this is a MUST because I use my phone for business as well as personal.

Ability to have up to four quick links in the bottom menu bar. I currently have the following icons that I use constantly - Phone, Contacts, Text Messaging, Applications. Everything else is accessed through home screen icons.

Compatability with current downloaded Android Apps. I need to have two apps working - 1. Biblegateway widget on one of my home screens. 2. XXXWatch accountability software on my phone (required for my ministry at church).

Audio/Video Capabilities I listen to a lot of music on my phone as watch movies from time to time while traveling or at the gym. I would like to keep this functionality or maybe improve the sound.

Optional items I would like but not required.

Better Battery Usage - I currently go through a fully charged batter in less than 6 hours. I would like to have this improved, maybe by removing CIQ?

Removal of CIQ - if this truly affects batter life, then I would like to have it removed.

Removal of Bloatware - again, optional, but why have all that Sprint crap on my phone when I never use it!

These are the four custom ROMs I am thinking of installing:

Rom Name: [ROM]Mostly Stock EI22 | Update 4 11/12 | (Added Extended Power Menu)
Developer: xBTx
Location: xda developers

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Rom Name: [ROM][EI22][ERA] Legendary ROM Beta.4.0 | NoCIQ
Developer: hoffman1984
Location: xda developers

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Rom Name: [ROM] [EI22] [CWM] CleanGB
Developer: toadlife
Location: xda developers

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Rom Name: [ROM][CWM][EI22] SleeperROM 1.0.01 No CiQ, Stockish-CRT-Overscroll,HotSpot Fix
Developer: SenseiSimple
Location: xda developers

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Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

add randomRom to that and you are in the same EXACT spot I am.
I hate reflashing every 5 minutes cause of reinstalling and everything.

I also don't want to have to re-link all my contacts.

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I ended up going with the Sleeper ROM. It was the simplest version of GB with almost all I needed. I still need to fix the video player because it won't play my .mkv (Matrovska) video files and all my movies are in .mkv format. Previously, I had no problems watching these movies.

Other than that, everything backed up (Titanium) and reloaded without any problems!

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

mkv files are just containers, try another media player like mvideoplayer and etc...

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I tried out Rock Player and it was ok. I'm about to try out MX Video Player. Is that what you meant?

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I actually meant mvideo player.but there are a bunch of video players that can play it...just mvideo player was the one I used on my Epic and it was one of the first with mkv support. There are other popular players like Mobo Player and Vital Player

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

Ahhhhhhh, I will look it up. I tried MX Video Player and although it started to play an 800 MB .mkv 720P movie file (THOR) on my phone, it hung up and crashed in about 1 minute and the quality during that 1 minute was poor, not 720p as it was in my stock video player.

Sleeper ROM creator is trying to fix this issue along with a few others we have tested and posted about over at XDA.

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

so... battery savings wise, what is the best ROM?
Last night my phone was sitting in my pocket and it went from 100% to off in over 5hrs

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I'm about to load ACS ICS 5.5

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

For me, the sleeper ROM battery life is good. It is better than stock. I have used my phone extensively the past few days since I flashed the rom and it lasts about 6 hours, whereas the stock GB would last 6 hours just sitting at my desk.

I don't know about the other ROMS. Haven't tried them, maybe someone else can chime in?

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I've been running this since it came out a few weeks ago. Coupled with the latest Samurai kernel (samurai-gen 2.0.6) I've been incredibly satisfied with performance, battery life, etc.

Let me know if you have any other questions about this rom and I'll answer what I can.

late,
Coz

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

ACS-ICS 5.5 is now a dead end. Marcus's latest version of his EI22 rom is called Revival. It's really RED!! Check it out at
❑❒❑❒ MarcusantROM Revival v1 ❑❒❑❒ - xda-developers
He seems to have broken his connection with ACS and moved on.

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

Correction: That link is ❑❒❑❒ MarcusantROM Revival v1 ❑❒❑❒ - xda-developers
I can't ever get the edit button to work:(

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

my first hour + with it, it used 4% battery...
then the next 1:40hrs it used 25%
hm...

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

Yeah...I read about the split with ACS and Marcus...I'm still partial to the ACS ICS 5.5....don't care for his red theme. 5.5 is still pretty darn polished and very robust.

late,
Coz

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

You'll need to recalibrate your battery since you also loaded a new kernel.

late,
Coz

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

Dumb question.... How does one recalibrate the battery? I thought I read a while back about this but can't seem to find the information.

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I would also like to know...
12:50am to now 12:08am and I'm at 37%

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

This is what I do after installing a new kernel and/or rom...and of course I'm sure it'll spark some debate:

• Install said kernel and/or rom.
• let the battery run down to at least 5%...the lower the better.
• plug your phone in.
• turn off your phone (while still plugged in).
• remove your battery and do something constructive for a minute with your life...hug your kid...pet you dog, etc.
• reinstall your battery and power up your phone (you'll probably notice your batter will read about 20%)
• leave it plugged in till 100%

At this point (100% mark) I also go will reset the battery stats via clockworkmod.



Use as normal.



late,
Coz

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

it went into a cycle of rebooting...

it said 100% when I plugged in the battery.
When it booted up, it said 28%

doing that now.

WHAT IS THE ROM OF PREFERENCE FOR SPEED AND EYE CANDY
 

I just rooted my epic and am now looking for a rom that doesnt eat up my battery and offers many functions, without all the sprint apps that come with the stock rom. What seems to be the most functional with the most useful bells and whistles???

Re: WHAT IS THE ROM OF PREFERENCE FOR SPEED AND EYE CANDY
 

Threads merged for everyone's convenience and continued browsing pleasures.

late,
Coz

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

Let us know how it all turns out.

late,
Coz

In my opinion custom rom's are lame, just people trying to fix what isn't broken. Unless your phone has been discontinued & there are no more android updates, then there is no need for custom rom. Just root, use apps like titanium backup, uninstall app's you don't use or want. This, in my opinion is the best way to for minimum " force close" apps, and missing crucial app's like hidden menus: diag mode, data,debug, manual programming are most of the time missing from custom roms. If there is an official update your custom rom
won't be able to receive it be cause it lame. Even if your flashing to another carrier you don't need custom roms to have it fully functioning web, mms,nav...

Sent from my SPH-D700 on the PPCGeeks App

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

While that is certainly true for the casual user and those users who "just need it to work"...some of us are looking to get more out of our devices. With custom roms you can:

• Get rid of carrier bloatware that is using up your resources and limited memory.
• Add custom apps that your device may not have on it natively.
• Get rid of things like CIQ (Carrier IQ).
• Overclock the processor to enable more speed in terms of rendering, opening and closing of apps, better video playback.
• Theme your entire device.
• Get "enhanced" apps like Sprint Hotspot, etc.
• and more....

....but ultimately in comes down to personal choice and how much time you want to spend playing with your phone :mrgreen:


late,
Coz

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

And woozy...glad to see you finally posted after joining in 2008! That's a long dry spell!!

late,
Coz

Lol, well I'm more of a hardware tech than firmware, but I've been doing both longer than most of the members on this fourm and many other. To each his own, just diggin the ppc app. More cellular fourms should start apps

Sent from my SPH-D700 on the PPCGeeks App

Let remove your battey from the equation: reinstall stock eveything, if your battery does the same thing, check bettery, if it's good then more than likely it the crap your were told to install

Sent from my SPH-D700 on the PPCGeeks App

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

woozy, thank you for your response. that leads me to another question. I rooted it last night and now would love to get all the sprint apps off like nascar and other stock apps that i simply do not use. how do i go about uninstalling those apps from this point?

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

ok.. the day before conditioning my battery, 14hrs.
after conditioning, 4hrs and the battery when from 100% to 2%

terrible!
every time i rebooted the battery dropped 10% at least

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

I use Titanium Backup on mine. get the free one from the market. First go menu, batch, backup, backup all user apps + System data run batch when that is done go back to batch, un-install, un-install all user & system apps, check deselect all, then check the app you want to uninstall run batch done

I uninstalled: allshare, amazon, books, free hd game demos, gmail app, media hub, memo, nascar, sprint zone, sprint id, swype, talk, y! finance clock.

I would like to remove the places, latitude, navigation apps but it wont let me i think if it did the gps would no longer work so its ok

pretty sure you battery is bad see if it does the same thing in someone else's phone then its the battery

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

then the 4 spares I bought are also bad?

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

BTW, I started over again with the conditioning thing and when I rebooted my phone, it was back at 100% and then the charge was going down in % as it was charging... after 1:20 of charging the numbers are finally going back up.

Re: Help me choose a custom ROM!
 

my battery and all batteries in this phone on all fw have done similar things so...